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Smurf Addiction

Yes you read that title correctly. I was sitting trying to work out what I’d write about tonight and while I did so I have the Smurf game playing on my iPad right next to me so I thought a confession was in order.
I seem to be addicted to the Smurf game for iPad.

This is a bit strange for a number of reasons.

1. I was never a huge smurf fan. Blue people are a little weird.
2. I’m not a big game player. I tend to get bored quickly and I’m not that competitive so I dont even have the urge to get that high score.
3. Given the above, it’s amazing the game is on my iPad at all.

Well I’m blaming my brother. (Can’t take responsibility for it myself now can I?). So why him you ask? Well when I go down to visit them I let my 3yo niece (his child) play games on my iPad. Usually it was things like Piano, drums, those light games that follow your finger and colouring in. Oh and she LOVEs this little game that teaches you physics called Touch Physics. It’s very cool.

However, the last time I went down I found out that he had downloaded and let her play on his phone a game called Cut the Rope, which she was quite good at. Naturally she wanted to play it on my “giant phone”. (“I love your giant phone Aunty Shaggy”).
Of course being three, she got tired of it after a while and wanted NEW games downloaded. We tried one called Smelly cat in which you pull a cartoon cats tail and aim it a bathtub. Yeah, a bit weird really. We both got bored of that pretty quickly. Drop chicken was next which was similar to Cut the Rope but not quite as good.

Somewhere along the way I got the Smurf game thinking it would be a good one for her. Wrong. It’s not really a game designed for a 3 year old because it requires a level of patience. Oh and the ability to read.

Basically you build little smurf houses, get plots of land and little smurf will grow things for you. The higher the level the more things you can grow, each of which is worth more but takes progressively longer to grow. The more smurfs you have the more crops you can grow etc etc. The good thing is you can set things going and then go about your business and you get a prompt to say when crops are ready.

For some reason I like having them busily working away where I can see them. Right now as I am typing I have 8 fields being planted. 2 with potatoes and 5 with raspberries (they grow in 5 mins so that’s more fun that the 24 hour potatoes). When they are ready you simply tap to harvest and collect your money. If only real life was like that.

(Of course even the game world isn’t without a sting with this game allowing in-app purchasing using REAL $$. Be careful. Either disable in-app purchasing through the Settings menu or just make sure kids play while you are watching. Apparently there’s be a bit of a furor about kids racking up huge bills on their parent credit cards.)

You can also design your village however you like (I’m starting to sound like an ad for it aren’t I). So as you expand you can move things around. To get ideas you can go to other villages and take a look. Most of these seem to be ones at high levels and are FULL of smurfs and houses and fields and other things.

You see if you build more houses, you get more smurfs. I’m not sure how this works. I dont have a Smurfette so where are these other smurfs coming from? Apparently they just wander in from the forest and take up residency in the new house.

Speaking of wandering, that’s all Papa Smurf does. I’m thinking these guys are Italian and Papa Smurf is the old patriarch who shuffles around the place aimlessly. He does have a “lab” where you can go and mix up potions (attract new smurf potions perhaps?) but Papa smurf is never in there so really I could whip up whatever I liked.
I have a bakery where I can bake things and win points but I’m never sure what happens to all the goods I bake. I also seem to have bushels of apples but I’m not really sure what their purpose is so they are just sitting around.

The whole thing is a little weird and yet I cannot stop playing. I’d forgotten about it altogther until a couple of days ago it popped up a message saying my Smurf village missed me when was I coming back. So back I went and here we are.
Ok I have to go, my raspberries are ready to harvest.

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4 thoughts on “Smurf Addiction”

well thanks for nothing. now i’m hooked on the stupid smurf game, as well as trying to manage my tiny tower addiction. its a wonder i can manage to hold down a job with all the important building and planting to be done. not to mention words with friends…..

I’m hooked as well. The OCD in me loves arranging and changing my village. The recent land expansion was bad for me because it made me redesign my entire village. I also wasn’t a game player until the smurfs 🙂 You on Game Center? I’m a faithful waterer and gift giver 🙂